Football: Butch Jones to visit CU Buffs Monday

Cincy coach met with Purdue Sunday

No news from West Lafayette, Ind., was good news Sunday for Colorado football fans eager to see Cincinnati coach Butch Jones become the 25th full time head coach in CU history.

Jones visited Purdue University on Sunday to interview for the head coaching job there. He did not speak to reporters during his visit and Purdue offered no hint of how the meeting went. The Lafayette Journal and Courier reported he spent four hours with Purdue officials.

Jones is scheduled to visit Colorado today and interview with athletic director Mike Bohn and other CU officials for the head coaching vacancy created eight days ago when Bohn fired Jon Embree after a 1-11 season.

Cincinnati won a share of the Big East Conference championship this season for the second year in a row under Jones, who is one of the hottest coaching candidates in the nation. He also met with Kentucky officials last month about the coaching vacancy there.

The Bearcats are scheduled to play Duke in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 27. If Jones is hired for any other job, it's unlikely he would coach in that game.

Cincinnati won its bowl game last year under Jones, beating Vanderbilt in Liberty Bowl.

Jones is slated to make $1.6 million in 2013 and could make $2 million or more at both Colorado and Purdue. Cincinnati is reportedly willing to rework his contract again this year after doing so last offseason in order to keep Jones.

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Jones wouldn't seem to be a fit for Colorado if only his history is considered. He has spent the bulk of his career in the Midwest or the East Coast and doesn't have a deep history of recruiting areas such as Texas and California, which have proven to be vital to building successful Saturdays in Folsom Field over the years for numerous CU coaches.

But just because Jones hasn't recruited the bulk of a class from those areas before doesn't mean he couldn't do so in the future, especially with the right group of assistant coaches behind him.

Jones is 44 and grew up in Saugatuck, Mich. He previously served as head coach at Central Michigan where he went 27-13 from 2007-2009. He took over at Cincinnati in 2010 and has gone 23-14.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly served as head coach at both Cincinnati and Central Michigan immediately before Jones was hired, and both programs were in strong positions at the time he took the reins. For instance, Cincinnati was 12-0 and Big East champion in 2009, the year before Jones took over as head coach.

Jones has never had to rebuild a program as head coach. Colorado is definitely a rebuilding project with the Buffs winning just four games in the past two seasons combined. CU hasn't been to a bowl game since 2007, hasn't won a bowl game since 2004 and hasn't had a winning season since 2005.

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